Have i to forgive my enemies? - Chambers, Oswald

1916, Zeitoun

Matthew 5:4344 did Jesus christ mean it when he said love your enemies? If he did, we must come to the conclusion either that he was a madman, or that there is a meaning underneath his words which we do not at first see. It is impossible to do what our lord says if we imagine we can do it of ourselves, and we soon discover our ignorance. Jesus christ bases all his teaching on the fundamental fact that god can do for a man what he cannot do for himself. It is an easy business to say i love my enemies when i havent any, but when i have an enemy, when a man has done me or those who belong to me, a desperate wrong, what is my attitude as a christian to be? Does Jesus christ mean that i have to ignore the rugged sense of justice which is in every man, and be a sentimentalist and say, oh yes, i forgive you? What we are up against just now is the danger of not making the basis of forgiveness and peace the right kind. If it is not the basis of perfect justice, it will fail. We may succeed in calling a truce, but that is not peace, and before long we will be at it again.

1. The matter of forgiveness. Repentance (Ephesians 1:7)

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

Forgiveness is the great message of the gospel, and it satisfies a mans sense of justice completely. The fundamental factor of Christianity is the forgiveness of sins. But what about the man who does not care whether he is forgiven or not? That is the case with us all to begin with, we do not care whether jesus christ lived or died or did anything at all, and to hear about god forgiving us, why, there is nothing in it. But when a man gets convicted of sin (which is the most direct way of knowing that at the basis of life there is a problem too big for him to solve), he knows that god dare not forgive him; if he did, then man has a bigger sense of justice than god. The majority of us know nothing about the redemption or forgiveness until we are enmeshed by the personal problem something happens which stabs us wide awake and we get our indifferent hide pierced; we come up against things and our conscience begins to be roused. When once a mans conscience is roused he knows god dare not forgive him and it awakens a sense of hopelessness. Forgiveness is a revelation hope for the hopeless; that is the message of the gospel.

According to the bible the basis of things is tragic, and the way out is the way Jesus christ made in the redemption. Any man, whether he be cain or judas, or you or i, can receive absolute forgiveness from god the moment he knows he needs it: but god cannot forgive a man unless he repents. Repentance means that we recognise the need for forgiveness hands up, i know it. Jesus Christ did not come to fling forgiveness broadcast; he did not come to the pharisees, who withstood him, and said he was possessed with a devil, and say i forgive you: he said, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? We may talk as much as we like about forgiveness, but it will never make any difference to us unless we realise that we need it. God can never forgive the man who does not want to be forgiven. As long as we live in the tenth storey we either talk sentimental stuff or else we remain indifferent to the fact of forgiveness; only when we strike bottom morally do we begin to realise what the new testament means by forgiveness. Immediately a man turns to god, the redemption is such that forgiveness is complete.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. The background of the forgiveness of god is his holiness. If god were

Not holy, there would be nothing in his forgiveness. The conscience of god means that he has to completely forgive and finally redeem the whole human race. Every man knows by the way he is made that there is such a thing as justice, and god forgives on the basis of his justice, viz. , on the ground of redemption. We are apt to say glibly that god will forgive us, but when we come up against the thing we know he dare not; if he did, he would cease to be god. There is no such thing as god overlooking sin. That is where people make a great mistake with regard to gods love; they say god is love and of course he will forgive sin: god is holy love and of course he cannot forgive sin. Therefore if god does forgive, there must be a reason that justifies him in doing it. Unless there is a possibility of forgiveness establishing an order of holiness and rectitude in a man, it would be a mean and abominable thing to be forgiven. If i am forgiven without being altered by the forgiveness, forgiveness is a damage to me and a sign of unmitigated weakness on the part of god. A man has to clear gods character in forgiving him. The revelation of forgiveness in the bible is not that god puts snow over a rubbish heap, but that he turns a man into the standard of himself, the forgiver. If i receive forgiveness and yet go on being bad, i prove that god is not justified in forgiving me. When god forgives a man he gives him the heredity of his own son, and there is no man on earth but can be presented perfect in Christ jesus. Then on the ground of the redemption, it is up to me to live as a son of god. The reason my sins are forgiven so easily is because the redemption cost god so much.

2. The method of forgiveness. Reaction (matthew 6:1215)

Jesus christ taught his disciples to pray, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, that is, he taught them to recognise that gods method of forgiveness is the same as our own. Jesus Christ did not say because we forgive our debtors, but as we forgive our debtors, that is, as children of god we are forgiven not on the ground of redemption, but on the ground that we show the same forgiveness to our fellows that god has shown to us. For if ye forgive men their tres- passes, your heavenly father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Gods method in forgiveness is exactly the method of our forgiveness, and is according to our human sense of justice. Peter seemed to stand on tiptoe once and try to reach to gods forgiveness lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and i forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, i say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven. Yet when a man has deliberately done you a wrong, it is according to the teaching of jesus that you must not say you forgive him unless he turns; if he turns, forgiveness is to be complete. We may forgive easily because we are shallow, but when we are deeply roused, we cannot forgive unless our sense of justice is satisfied. The most marvellous ingredient in the forgiveness of god is that he also forgets, the one thing a human being can never do. Forgetting with god is a divine attribute; gods forgiveness forgets. We can never forget saving by the sovereign grace of god. God exhausts metaphors to show what his forgiveness means i, even i, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins (Isaiah 43:25); i have blot- ted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins (Isaiah 44:22); as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us (psalm 103:12); for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back (Isaiah 38:17); for i will forgive their iniquity, and i will remember their sin no more ( Jeremiah 31:34). When the prodigal son came back with words which meant, i am sorry to the backbone for what i have done and am ashamed of myself, the father never said a word about the far country, about the harlots and the riotous living (the elder brother reminded him of all that); he did not cast up at him one thing he had done sufficient for him that his son had returned. Is it conceivable to us that god will forget what we have done? He says he will; but the forgiveness of god does not work unless we turn; it cannot, any more than it does according to human justice. When we turn to god and say we are sorry, Jesus christ has pledged his word that we will be forgiven, but the forgiveness is not operative unless we turn, because our turning is the proof that we know we need forgiveness.

3. The message of forgiveness. Retaliation v. Retribution (matthew 18:1517; 3435)

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. (mat- thew 18:15)

It would be an immoral thing to forgive a man who did not say he was sorry. If a man sins against you and you go to him and point out that he has done wrong if he hears you, then you can forgive him; but if he is obstinate you can do nothing; you cannot say i forgive you, you must bring him to a sense of justice. Jesus Christ said, i say unto you, love your enemies, but he also said the most appallingly stern things that were ever uttered, e. G. , . . . Neither will your father forgive your trespasses. I cannot forgive my enemies and remain just unless they cease to be my

Enemies and give proof of their sorrow, which must be expressed in repentance. I have to remain steadfastly true to gods justice. There are times when it would be easier to say oh well, it does not matter, i for- give you, but Jesus insists that the uttermost farthing must be paid. The love of god is based on justice and holiness, and i must forgive on the same basis. There is a difference between retaliation and retribution. The basis of life is retribution for with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

This statement of our lords is not a haphazard guess, it is an eternal law and it works from gods throne right down. Life serves back in the coin you pay. You are paid back what you give not necessarily by the same person; and this holds with regard to good as well as evil. If you have been generous, you will meet generosity again through someone else;

if you have been shrewd in finding out the defects of others, that is the way people will judge you. Jesus Christ never allows retaliation, but he says that the basis of life is retribution. If my enemy turns and gives proof of his sorrow, i am not to meet him with retaliation. Christianity is not a set of principles, but relationship to a person, Jesus christ, while the holy spirit works in us a spontaneous relationship to things on the basis of gods forgiveness of us. The distinctive thing about christianity is for- giveness, not sanctification or my holiness, but forgivenessthe greatest miracle god ever performs through the redemption. Forgiveness means not merely that a man is saved from sin and made right for heaven no man would accept forgiveness on such a level;

forgiveness means that i am saved from sinning and put into the redeemer to grow up into his image. I am forgiven into a recreated relationship, i. E. , into identification with god in Christ, so that the for- given man is the holy man. The basis of human life is redemption. There is nothing more certain in time or eternity than what Jesus christ did on the cross. He switched the whole of the human race back into right relationship to god, and any one of us can get into touch with god now, not presently. Forgiveness is the miracle of grace; it is impossible for human beings to forgive, and it is because we do not see this that we misunderstand the revelation of forgiveness. The great characteristic of god is not that he says he will pay no more attention to what we have done, but that he forgives us, and in forgiving he is able to deal with our past, with our present and our future. Do i believe that god can deal with my yesterday and make it as though it had never been? By means of the redemption god undertakes to deal with a mans past, and he does it in two ways first, he forgives it, and then he makes it a wonderful culture for the future. When god says don’t do that any more, he in stils into me the power that enables me not to do it any more, and the power comes by right of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. That is the unspeakable wonder of the forgiveness of god, and when we become rightly related to god, we are to have the same relationship to our fellow men that god has to us. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as god for Christs sake hath forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).